you can go to prison for having a knife? lol in the US you can have a god damn RPG and get like $500 fine.
He's not going to prison, he's serving a community order.
Pacquiao for me. If it's just within boxing then Floyd has the numbers on his side but in terms of being a star on a across the globe it's Pacquiao. All Floyd has is boxing, outside of that he hasn't pierced into public conciousness at least not in a very positive way or in a way which entices different forms of entertainment/media to take interest. No endorsements that I can think of, the only thing I saw him on that wasn't boxing related was the WWE.
Pacquiao on the other hand not only draws big in PPV numbers, he sells out a stadium against an opponent with practically zero fanbase, he has endorsement deals with Nike which reaches out to a far bigger audience than the one boxing offers Has been listed on many a broadcast media and news magazines in lists for most influential people in the world, and has numerous accolades within the boxing community including fighter of the decade.
Britain actually has very good race relations in my experience, and particularly in the south. Its difficult to find yourself prejudiced when you're raised on a playground with a huge diversity of heritage.
There are tribal issues of course, as there are everywhere.
You can find racists anywhere in the world though, and that term is basically synonymous with ignorance.
In my opinion Khan's problem has very little to do with race. I've met a lot of Pakistani guys in Manchester who dislike him because they know him and say he has a history of arrogance man, walking up to girls saying 'do you know who I am?', things like this. To his credit, I also heard a guy say that he's since settled down.
I was a great fan of Khan during the Olympics, and remain a fan today as he is a British hopeful, and a skilful fighter.
But the way his career was formed, fighting that long series of clubfighters, never does anything to endear a fighter to the boxing public.
The fact that he was appearing all over Reebok adverts before he had proved himself at the professional world level, did not endear him to fans of the sport. For these reasons his savage knockout loss was largely received as both comeuppance and proof of his limitations.
Furthermore, he overplayed the 'hard done by' hand and effectively calling the public racist wasn't going to win him any new fans.
The British public by and large want to see someone taking the challenges, and taking them with grace and courage. That's why guys like Cooper and Bruno, though limited, will be lauded in posterits.
I don't see the reception of Khan being any different if he was white if these facts were to remain the same.
Saying that, his rebound to the world stage is a genuine accomplishment, and most British fans that I know want him to do well.
I'd like to see him engage with the public more, chin a few big punchers and test himself fully. I want him to go far.
I couldn't give a sh*t what colour his skin is.
Nicely put.
After Hatton, Khan has far and away the biggest following of any current british boxer in the UK. From the moment he won silver at the Olympics the guy has had exposure on a national level that not even Ricky had that early on in his career. He seems to think that because all the yes men around him kiss his ass that the rest of the UK must fall in line and do the same. The guy needs to wind his neck. I mean, Nigel Benn, Chris Eubank, Frank Bruno, Prince Naseem even Lennox Lewis were all stars.
Oscar willingly went to 147, knowone forced him. I remember he announced (at the post fight press conference) right after his fight with Mayweather that he was going down to 147. Plus he was the one who challenged Manny, not the other way round.
He's an excuse maker plain and simple. What's funnier is hearing him talk about his wins. To hear him talk about the wins over Taylor and Dirrell you would think that he ran through these guys like a hot knife through butter.
Once their parents made it, kids no longer have that hunger. Unless they got love for the sport.
This is true, rich kids get it easy. Pressure and not having things their own way isn't something they're good at handling. They're have no idea of how to survive because they have had no struggles. There is probably a few exceptions to the rule but I can't name any off the top of my head.
Like I said to a friend when he asked me what would happen in a fight between Pacquiao and Khan, Tommy would throw a right hand, miss, and the air created by it would knock Amir out cold. And even if Tommy had no power, he still had enough boxing skills to outbox Khan for a full 15 or 12 rounds.
It may sound ridiculous but we're talking about the two fastest boxers in the sport today. I say in terms of speed it would be an interesting fight.
Speed means nothing in this fight. It's all done to Manny's ability to throw hard shots and Khan's inability in taking them. Barrera still caught Khan and staggered him a couple times. Manny will decapitate the young fella.
WWE/WWF are still pretty fun to watch. I preferred it back when the wrestlers were ugly MOFO's that looked like and wrestled like they really wanted to kill someone. Now it's full of pretty boys. Though the women have got extremely hot.
As far as MMA/Boxing. I'm a fight fan, I don't care what combat sport it is, I just love a good fight.
Wait, so Ricky trained for 12 weeks whereas Manny trained for 8. Now they say the camp was chaotic and if that was the case he could have easily had sorted something out in the first 4 weeks and still had sufficient time to get an 8 week camp in.
Excuses if you ask me. Hatton did his fair share of talking before the fight. Stuff lke "I'm too big for Manny", "He's never fought anyone like me", as well as discrediting Pacquiao's credentials in an article on the BBC website. Then the guy gets smacked around worse than Tina Turner, put to sleep and now his dad is trying to make excuses for the fact that his son can't cut the mustard. I guess he had to look for something to blame since he couldn't blame the ref.